Mick Dodson | |
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_(Dodson_cropped).jpg) Dodson in 2014 | |
| Born | Michael James Dodson (1950-04-10)10 April 1950 (age 74) Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Education | Monivae College |
| Alma mater | Monash University |
| Occupation(s) | Barrister and academic; Professor of Law at theAustralian National University |
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| Relatives | Pat Dodson(brother) |
Michael James DodsonAM, FASSA (born 10 April 1950) is anAboriginal Australian barrister, academic, and member of theYawuru people in theBroome area of the southernKimberley region ofWestern Australia.[1]
His brother isPat Dodson, also a noted Aboriginal leader and from 2016 to 2024 a senator in the Federal Parliament, representing Western Australia.
Following his parents' death, he boarded atMonivae College,Hamilton, Victoria. He graduated with degrees in Jurisprudence and Law fromMonash University in 1974, as the first Indigenous person to graduate from law in Australia. Following graduation, he worked as a criminal solicitor for the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, and later as a criminal defence barrister at the Victorian Bar, where he still practises as a barrister specialising in native title. He has worked extensively as a legal adviser in native title and human rights, and as an academic in Indigenous law. He is currently Professor of Law at theAustralian National University, as the director of its National Centre for Indigenous Studies, and has lectured as a visiting academic at theUniversity of Arizona andHarvard University respectively. Dodson's efforts for the rights of indigenous people around the world in 2005 made him a member ofUnited Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.[2]
He has been a prominentadvocate ofland rights and other issues affectingIndigenous peoples in Australia and globally and has extensive involvement in theUnited Nations Forum on Indigenous Issues. He is the Chief Investigator for theServing Our Country: a history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the defence of Australia project, anAustralian Research Council-funded research project based at The Australian National University.[3]
On 25 January 2009, he was namedAustralian of the Year.[4][5][6]
As of 2023[update] he lives and works inCanberra. He has been active in politics of Australian government, justice andcrime prevention.[7]
Dodson retired from ANU in March 2018.[8]
On 10 October 2023, Dodson was one of 25Australians of the Year who signed anopen letter supporting the Yes vote in theIndigenous Voice referendum, initiated by psychiatristPatrick McGorry.[9][10]
It is alleged that Mick Dodson verbally abused a woman at an NTFL game. The incident was investigated by the NT government but the outcome was not disclosed.[15]
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